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Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Ecclesiastes 4:8

Alone — Who has none but himself to care for. Brother — To whom he may leave his vast estate. Yet — He lives in perpetual restlessness and toil. For whom — Having no kindred to enjoy it. And bereave — Deny myself those comforts and conveniences which God hath allowed me? A sore travel — A dreadful judgment, as well as a great sin.

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See also Ecclesiastes 4:8 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Ecclesiastes 4:8. _THERE IS ONE_ ALONE, _AND_ THERE IS _NOT A SECOND_] Here _covetousness_ and _avarice_ are characterized. The man who is the centre of his own existence; has neither wife, chi...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    The spectacle of a prosperous man whose condition is rendered vain by his brotherless, childless isolation. Ecclesiastes 4:8 A SECOND - Any one associated or connected with him. Ecclesiastes 4:9...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 4 OBSERVATIONS OF DIFFERENT WRONGS _ 1. Concerning oppressions (Ecclesiastes 4:1)_ 2. Concerning envy of fools and the rich (Ecclesiastes 4:4) 3. Concerning the miser (Ecclesiast

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    ECCLESIASTES 4. A GLOOMY SURVEY. The chapter falls into four parts, which treat respectively of oppression (Ecclesiastes 4:1), rivalry (Ecclesiastes 4:4), isolation amounting to self-torture (Ecclesia...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    CHILD. son. LABOUR. toil. MY SOUL. myself. TRAVAIL. fatigue from toil. See note on Ecclesiastes 2:23; Ecclesiastes 2:26....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _There is one alone, and there is not a second_ The gaze of the seeker now falls on another picture. That which strikes him as another example of the vanity of human efforts is the frequent loneliness...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    THERE IS ONE ALONE, AND THERE IS NOT A SECOND— _Here is a man who hath no second, neither son nor brother; yet he puts no end to his labour: neither,_ &c....

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    3. Attain your riches for practical good. Ecclesiastes 4:7-12 TEXT 4:7-12 7 Then I looked again at vanity under the sun. 8 There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a b...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    4:8 occupation. (b-55) Or 'travail,' as ch. 3.10....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    VICISSITUDES OF LIFE. 'OH, THE PITY OF IT!' 1-3. The mass of human suffering and the absence of pity are such that better off are the dead and still more the unborn. It is not only through God's ord...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    TWO more ills of life are covetousness aria loneliness....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THERE IS ONE _alone_] The avaricious has none to share his wealth or to succeed him; yet his toil is insatiable. 9-12. The advantages of companionship are shown by four illustrations, three of which a...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE TEACHER SEARCHES FOR THE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES _HILDA BRIGHT AND KITTY PRIDE_ CHAPTER 4 This chapter contains several subjects. 1. PEOPLE WHO SUFFER – ECCLESIASTES 4:1-...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    יֵ֣שׁ אֶחָד֩ וְ אֵ֨ין שֵׁנִ֜י גַּ֣ם בֵּ֧ן

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    IT TENDS TO FORM A COVETOUS TEMPER Ecclesiastes 4:8 (b) Nor, in the face of facts patent to the most cursory observer, can we deny that this eager successful conduct of business and excessive devotio...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    IT IS RENDERED HOPELESS BY THE BASE ORIGIN OF HUMAN INDUSTRIES. Ecclesiastes 4:4 This stinging sense of the miserable estate of his race has, however, diverted the Preacher from the conduct of the ma...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    AND BY HUMAN INJUSTICE AND PERVERSITY. Ecclesiastes 3:16; Ecclesiastes 4:1 But not only are our endeavours to find the "good" of our labours thwarted by the gracious, inflexible laws of the just God...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    SECOND SECTION The Quest Of The Chief Good In Devotion To The Affairs Of Business Ecclesiastes 3:1 - Ecclesiastes 5:20 I. IF the true Good is not to be found in the School where Wisdom utters her vo...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    From this general survey the preacher returned to examine the condition of the beings whom he had described as being no better than the beasts. He looked out upon them, and saw them in suffering, and...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Things? He acts as if he were to live for ever, or feared to be starved._...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun. (8) There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye sa...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 1 THROUGH 12. The Book of Ecclesiastes is, up to a certain point, the converse of the Book of Proverbs. (see NOTE TO PROVERBS below) It is the experience of a...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    THERE IS ONE [ALONE], AND [THERE IS] NOT A SECOND,.... According to Aben Ezra, either no friend or companion, or no servant, or no wife, which last sense he prefers; no friend or companion he chooses,...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    There is one [alone], and [there is] not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet [is there] no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither [saith he], For wh...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _There is one alone_ Who has none but himself to care for. _Yea, he hath neither child nor brother_ To whom he may leave his vast estate; _yet is there no end of his labours_ He lives in perpetual res...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    There is one alone, and there is not a second, the reference being to a man without relatives or friends; YEA, HE HATH NEITHER CHILD NOR BROTHER, no one bound to him by natural ties, the necessity bei...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    EVILS OF SOCIAL AND CIVIL LIFE...

  • Mark Dunagan Commentaries

    "THERE WAS. CERTAIN MAN WITHOUT. DEPENDENT, HAVING NEITHER. SON NOR. BROTHER, YET THERE WAS NO END TO ALL HIS LABOR. INDEED, HIS EYES WERE NOT SATISFIED WITH RICHES AND HE NEVER ASKED, 'AND FOR WHOM....

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    7,8 Frequently, the more men have, the more they would have; and on this they are so intent, that they get no enjoyment from what they have. Selfishness is the cause of this evil. A selfish man cares...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    ONE ALONE; either, 1. Who lives by himself, as grudging that any ether should partake of his provisions. Or rather, 2. Who hath none but himself to care and labour for, as the next words explain it....

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Ecclesiastes 4:8 is H3426 one H259 companion H8145 son H1121 brother H251 end H7093 labors H5999 eye H5869 sati

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    CHAPTER 4 THE DREADFULNESS OF OPPRESSION. GUIDANCE ON LIVING. This chapter begins with considering the dreadfulness of oppression and then continues with thoughts on living, giving both good and bad...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE (ECCLESIASTES 4:4). Having all to briefly considered the oppression that was in the world, which has left him feeling that it was better if they had never been born, he no...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 3:1 A profound gloom rests on the second act or section of this drama. It teaches us that we are helpless in the iron grip of laws which we had no voice in making; that we often lie at th...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Discontent and impatience because of the oppressions and iniquities of life. CHARACTERS: Solomon. CONCLUSION: The world is full of trouble. By reason of man's perversity, he is ever distur...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Ecclesiastes 4:2. _Wherefore I praised the dead more than the living,_ who are robbed, fleeced, and exposed to incessant afflictions, from oppression and war. Solomon alludes to extreme cases, such as...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour._ AN OLD PORTRAIT OF MODERN MEN Here is a portrait, drawn by a man who lived thousands of years...

  • The children's great texts of the Bible by James Hastings

    THREE'S BEST One alone. Ecclesiastes 4:8 (AV). Two are better than one. Ecclesiastes 4:9. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12. Instead of one text we are going to h

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ECCLESIASTES—NOTE ON ECCLESIASTES 4:7 Some people engage in endless TOIL yet are NEVER SATISFIED even though they acquire great RICHES. On the other hand there are those who

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— ECCLESIASTES 4:10. IF THEY FALL.] Not both together, but if one or the other falls. ECCLESIASTES 4:12. A THREEFOLD CORD.] Two cords would only suggest plurality, but three give the...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 4:1 Section 5. Koheleth proceeds to give further illustrations of _man_'_s inability to be the architect of his own happiness_._ _There are many things which interrupt or des...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So I returned, and I considered all of the oppressions that are done under the sun: and the tears of those that are oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 John 2:16; Ecclesiastes 1:13; Ecclesiastes 1:8; Ecclesiastes 2:23;...

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